This is a trend that has caught the attention of the Prime Minister as well. During his recent ‘Mann Ki Baat’, PM Narendra Modi spoke about how housewives in Karnataka are preparing different dishes with banana flour instead of wheat and maida.
Banana flour – made from green bananas – is not new to the region, being used as baby food and as a nutritional supplement for the elderly.
However, what is new is the way housewives are now using the flour in new ways, making chapatis, gulab jamuns, noodles and burfis among other items.
Jackfruit worker Mr Padre is partly responsible for the banana field on top of the banana flour. It all started when Padre posted a few lines about Jayambika, a housewife from Thrissur, to a WhatsApp group of farmers. When she saw that the demand for bananas was low, Jayambika bought several bunches and sold them after making powder. GC George of Alleppey Krishi Vigyan Kendra guided him in preparing the powder.
Inspired by this post, Nayana Anand, a housewife from Tumakuru, Karnataka, also made powder of bananas grown in her backyard and tried different recipes with it.
Padre posted Nayana’s experience and it went viral. Many people started experimenting with it and started making new dishes.
According to Padre, over a hundred families have started preparing banana flour in the last one month, which shows its immense potential.
He said that the preparation of banana flour is particularly relevant in areas where farmers face production surpluses or where quality issues prevent sales. It takes just three days to turn green bananas into flour and thus a perishable item can be turned into a long-lasting product.
easy to prepare
Two teaspoons of salt is to be added to the rice starch solution. After peeling the green banana, soak in this solution for 10 minutes, after which it can be cut and dried in the sun. A regular mixer grinder at home was used by farmers to powder it for preparing flour.
According to Padre, banana flour can be a viable micro-enterprise for farmers, and cited the example of Ajappa Kulgod, a farmer in Belagavi district, who has started producing and marketing it locally.
He says the more ambitious can set up micro flour mills that can help both farmers and entrepreneurs and provide local jobs. Such a unit requires only one slicer, one dryer and one pulverizer for investment. It certainly sounds like an idea to fruition.
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